Turbine threat lifted … for now

Great to read in the Suffolk Free Press this weekend:

The company behind proposals to place a 100-metre high wind turbine in Cavendish has chosen not to progress with a planning application.

Renewables First, a hydro and wind firm, was exploring plans to locate a turbine at Wales End Farm in Peacocks Road.

It lodged an application for an environmental impact assessment at the site in the summer, but has chosen not to go ahead with the scheme.

“We have decided we will not be proceeding,” said a company spokesman, who refused to go into detail about why it was backing out of the plans.

A number of villagers had expressed fears that the turbine, which would have measured 99.5 metres at the tip of its blade, would have set a precedent for more if approved.

Concerns were particularly prevalent due to the sanctioning of a 78-metre high wind turbine in nearby Clare in April.

The turbine on Maple Hill, which will be able to provide power for 319 homes, was passed despite 170 letters of objection and condemnation by various groups.

A spokeswoman for St Edmundsbury Borough Council said it had not received an official planning application for a wind turbine at Wales End.

However there is still the problem that it was only by chance that we found out about this. So we are keeping up the pressure on St Edmudnsbury to ensure that their Statment of Community Involvement will include the provision that local parishes… and councillors … will in future be notified when an application for an Environmental Impact Assessment screening is submitted.